Hope he has a giant photo of Bin Laden with his eyeball hanging out set up as a backdrop for the speech, just in case the very low-information voters watching at home are slow on the uptake about what they’re supposed to glean from this speech.

President Barack Obama is in Afghanistan for a whirlwind visit that will culminate in a live, televised address to the American people.

Obama is expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement shortly with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.Obama’s scheduled to speak to the nation just after 7:30 p.m., eastern time, from Bagram airbase.

Pool, which assembled Monday night at Andrews, has been under an embargo preventing reporting of the trip up til now.

Obama left at 12:09 AM Tuesday morning. And arrived at Bagram at 10:20 pm local time.

It was smart to key this to the partnership agreement since now he’ll have a big stage to announce a significant drawdown of American troops, which should please swing voters. You can see the political message coming: We won in Afghanistan by killing Bin Laden and destroying his network so now we can responsibly and victoriously withdraw. It’s a two-fer — an end-zone dance over Al Qaeda’s deterioration and an unofficial declaration that the war is ending and the boys are coming home. Shrewd politics. If he pulls out Bin Laden’s empty skull and sets it on the podium, you can probably call the election right now.

Stand by for updates.

Update: Before he declares victory, can we get a final accounting on just how many Afghan soldiers have fired at their American mentors? According to the AP, the Pentagon’s been conspicuously quiet about non-lethal “green on blue” attacks.

I’d be keen to hear O’s and Panetta’s reaction to this Guardian piece too before those ephemeral peace talks with the Taliban start heating up again:

Documents found in the house where Osama bin Laden was killed a year ago show a close working relationship between top al-Qaida leaders and Mullah Omar, the overall commander of the Taliban, including frequent discussions of joint operations against Nato forces in Afghanistan, the Afghan government and targets in Pakistan…

The news will undermine hopes of a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, where the key debate among analysts and policymakers is whether the Taliban – seen by many as following an Afghan nationalist agenda – might once again offer a safe haven to al-Qaida or like-minded militants, or whether they can be persuaded to renounce terrorism…

“Questions and issues come up. They don’t see eye to eye on everything but it’s clear they understand they have an interest in co-operating [on attacks against Nato, Afghan government and Pakistani targets],” the source said. “Of those engaged in the conversation, two [Zawahiri and Omar] are still alive today and there is no reason to believe that either has substantially changed his views in the last year.”

The frustration—or, even anger—within the SEAL community is real, and has been brewing for months, particularly among a politically conservative core of operators. It started immediately after the raid, with questions among the Special Forces and intelligence community of whether the president should have waited to announce the kill to exploit the intelligence cache at Osama’s compound. It simmered after a Chinook helicopter was shot down, killing 30 Americans, 22 of them Navy SEALs from Team Six…

Over the past few days, I’ve reached out to a number of SEALs, both active duty and former. Most active duty SEALs were reluctant to go on the record venting or praising their boss, but one of the most interesting responses I received from an operator was to direct me to Leif Babin, a SEAL who left active duty last year.

Babin, who runs the consulting firm Echelon Front, wrote a little noticed op-ed in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal four months ago. The headline: OBAMA EXPLOITS THE NAVY SEALS. Babin took aim at “the president and his advisors, writing: “It is infuriating to see political gain put above the safety and security of our brave warriors and our long-term strategic goals.”

Blowback

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Comments

There is something called overplaying your hand and turning people off. Also, the more the Barry camp spikes this ball, the more people will notice that there is nothing else in his record left to sell.

galtani on May 1, 2012 at 5:32 PM

The Emperor Zero needs to get the economy off the front page. Its about jobs, like there are none. Its about the FAKE GDP numbers.

So he’s doing a tone deaf grandstand to misdirect our attention. But even this cynical effort is going to backfire.

MR. KERRY: I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

We call this investigation the “Winter Soldier Investigation.” The term “Winter Soldier” is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.

We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.

None, I repeat NONE of these allegations turned out to have any merit whatsoever. Investigators, when the force of actual law was applied, could not get these “brave noble Winter Soldiers” to go under oath and repeat their “testimony” when they would be held accountable for accuracy and honesty. They had plenty to say in Detroit, but when push came to shove they all chickened out and did not do their duty to see the “perpetrators” to justice, because it was all bullsh!t propaganda in the first place, and Kerry’s comrades in arms were the collateral damage.

What the f*^k is honorable about this? What cause was he serving? It sure wasn’t the USA, that much is clear.

If any of this were actually true, don’t you think there should have been an actual trial with Kerry as the star witness, naming names? I do. There never was, because he was and is a craven opportunist hack out for himself the whole time.

Oh, please. You can’t seriously ask for a cite from the NYT (I assume that is the “times” you are referring to) and then bash another source as being political hackery. The Times is ridiculously left wing, and as of last week even their ombudsman all but admitted such.

If you can’t admit that the Times has a distinct left lean, then you intellectual dishonesty is showing.

At least I can recognize that Fox News or the New York Post has a right wing bent, and take their news with the appropriate grain of salt.

Moving on.
I’ll save you the time and effort to dig up every piece of everything that been done dug up and waived about a’plenty.
Old battles are just that.
My bad for bringing it up (did I bring it up?).

Off to catch Obama’s 7:30 Live From Afghanistan Special, followed by NCIS.

My mother had a stroke last year, had a hospice stay and passed away so my routine of life got upended and I dropped off the internet entirely for a while. Things aren’t normal exactly, but life goes on.

If there is one thing that gets my anger up it is John F’n Kerry, Hero of the Revolution of Glorious Proletariat Victory and Forward Progress.

Has anyone in the collection of “brilliant” minds of an administration thought through the fact that one of those 72 vestial virgin seeking religion of peace practicers might actually get through the drunken whoremongering secret service and take jug ears out?

And, as few have ever noticed, as a commissioned officer in the US Armed Forces, Kerry was under a legal obligation to expose and prosecute any and all “war crimes” he may have witnessed or had information about…under the UCMJ…and did he even once attempt to do so?

No evidence at all that Kerry ever filed any documentation or other information up the chain of command, not even a simple one-page memo for record.

Yet, while still on active duty, and out of uniform/in improper uniform, Kerry gives sworn testimony that war crimes in the manner of Ghengis Khan took place?

He lied then.

He lied in 2004…”seared into his memory” was being on a boat (well out of his assigned area of operations) allegedly listening to a President who had not yet been sworn in…

Still following the news reports of this stunt. The Preezy is taking a beating in the comments of every single story I’ve read, no matter what outlet. Tomorrow is gonna be brutal for the barack campaign.

Still following the news reports of this stunt. The Preezy is taking a beating in the comments of every single story I’ve read, no matter what outlet. Tomorrow is gonna be brutal for the barack campaign.

Dorothy, we’re not in 2008 anymore!

(When is someone in the barack campaign going to figure that out?)

Rational Thought on May 1, 2012 at 5:49 PM

Do you actually believe this, or are you just trying to buck up the troops? Serious question.

Moving on.
I’ll save you the time and effort to dig up every piece of everything that been done dug up and waived about a’plenty.
Old battles are just that.
My bad for bringing it up (did I bring it up?).

Off to catch Obama’s 7:30 Live From Afghanistan Special, followed by NCIS.

verbaluce on May 1, 2012 at 5:47 PM

Smart man. You can’t defend the indefensible. The man is a slimy disgusting pile of excrement not worthy of the company of men he slandered so carelessly, and so selfishly.

You can see the political message coming: We won in Afghanistan by killing Bin Laden and destroying his network so now we can responsibly and victoriously withdraw. It’s a two-fer — an end-zone dance over Al Qaeda’s deterioration and an unofficial declaration that the war is ending and the boys are coming home. Shrewd politics.

Still following the news reports of this stunt. The Preezy is taking a beating in the comments of every single story I’ve read, no matter what outlet. Tomorrow is gonna be brutal for the barack campaign.

Dorothy, we’re not in 2008 anymore!

(When is someone in the barack campaign going to figure that out?)

Rational Thought on May 1, 2012 at 5:49 PM

I’m seeing the same thing. The net is on FIRE with this. Let’s hope the Zero campaign never figures it out. That seems likely.

He still to this day has not released his DoD form that would clear up all the questions. He doesn’t want any answers other than the approved narrative for his political persona. The truth is far different.

Brian1972 on May 1, 2012 at 5:21 PM

During the 2004 campaign, al-Associated Press successfully sued the Chimpy Bush White House to force him to release all of his military records.

At the same time, they ignored his Democrat “opponent’s” refusal to do the same.

In fact, Horseface only released his complete military records to 3 people, all “reporters”; one worked for the LA Times, and another for his hometown, NY Times-owned Boston Glob.

And, as few have ever noticed, as a commissioned officer in the US Armed Forces, Kerry was under a legal obligation to expose and prosecute any and all “war crimes” he may have witnessed or had information about…under the UCMJ…and did he even once attempt to do so?

No evidence at all that Kerry ever filed any documentation or other information up the chain of command, not even a simple one-page memo for record.

Yet, while still on active duty, and out of uniform/in improper uniform, Kerry gives sworn testimony that war crimes in the manner of Ghengis Khan took place?

He lied then.

He lied in 2004…”seared into his memory” was being on a boat (well out of his assigned area of operations) allegedly listening to a President who had not yet been sworn in…

coldwarrior on May 1, 2012 at 5:49 PM

Exactly right. Where was the follow through to prosecute these Genghis Kahn-like genocidal monsters he described? It never happened because all these “Winter Soldiers” backed away when they had the chance to really go on the record with their stories.

I still can’t believe the Democrats nominated this crapweasel for Commander in Chief, oblivious to how this episode would play to a new generation. It’s one of the most infuriating things I have ever read about, and he will be hounded by his own words until he joins those he slandered who never made it back home to hear what he said about them. Their families heard it all though, didn’t they? Bastard.

Too bad that Tom Hanks can’t write a short script for Barry while he’s “IN COUNTRY”. Get him dressed out in BDU’s, an M-4 and helmet. I’m sure Hanks can come up with something suitably awesome for The One to utter. Sort of a Band of Brothers, Pacific, Saving Private Obama moment.

given your rejection of any mainstream news org, such as ap, reuters, mcclatchy, the times, etc., as sources that can be used to buttress one’s arguments, i find it funny that you would try to convince me of something by quoting human events. that is all, pops.

Human Events wasn’t the only one to carry what I cited. You’ll find many more examples of the Afghan ROE rules changing, especially in the various military blogs out there.

As for the ones you mention that I have Bolded, let’s look at them as well.

1.As I just noted in a separate post, al-AP successfully sued the Bush WH for all of his military records, but did not do the same to his Democrat “opponent” in 2004. In fact, they aided Lurch in keeping his military records a secret.

Since that time, al-AP has also been busted more than once for manufacturing Fake Polls; a year ago they sampled almost twice as many Democrats as Republicans to get O’bama a 6 point job approval bounce after he murdered bin Laden personally. In a September 2009 poll, they actually sampled twice as many Democrats as Republicans, something no other pollster or news organization has ever done to my knowledge.

Do you actually believe this, or are you just trying to buck up the troops? Serious question.

cjw79 on May 1, 2012 at 5:52 PM

Oh, precious, I don’t “believe” (that’s for Obamabots), I KNOW. This is a train wreck for barack. Clearly, this stunt was planned before this story went south on them, before the Navy Seals came forward and said barack is a scumbag, before the former chairman of the joint chiefs came out and “decried the politicalization of the bin laden killing,” before the public said it had had enough of the gratuitous self-congratulations. While I predict a hastily rewritten speech tonight that will have less barack, and more “go team!” it won’t be enough to save barack. He’s shown too much of his true colors here, and they are ugly, ugly colors. Certainly not presidential colors. And Romney doesn’t have to do a thing. He can just keep his mouth shut and watch barack out there beclowning himself.

With Obama essentially declaring victory in Afghanistan, declaring the War on Terror practically over, and taking victory laps all the way to Kabul over killing bin Laden, I think the mullahs in Iran can rest easy over an Obama ordered strike until at least December.

I see no way Obama would risk shattering the image he is trying to project portraying himself as the victor over all that Bush could not defeat, or so the fiction goes.

Attacking Iran could torpedo that image unless a quick strike is overwhelmingly successful, with no repercussions or substantive fallout. And that is impossible to be sure of with certainty. Anyone think Obama is “gutsy” enough to take that risk and make that call? Me neither. Not unless he knows we can flatten Iran quickly if they strike back. I see no way he makes that call.

However, Israel will know this and it makes an Israeli strike even more likely, if it becomes necessary. Obama must be doing everything he can to prevent Israel from striking Iran, making him essentially Iran’s new ally.

While I predict a hastily rewritten speech tonight that will have less barack, and more “go team!”

Bingo! This will be a new Obama. He will give the military and intelligence community their props. Someone on his staff has to have at least stumbled across the negativity and has made his aware that he better change the program.

While I predict a hastily rewritten speech tonight that will have less barack, and more “go team!”

Bingo! This will be a new Obama. He will give the military and intelligence community their props. Someone on his staff has to have at least stumbled across the negativity and has made his aware that he better change the program.

Vince on May 1, 2012 at 6:17 PM

But can they, in their haste, get it onto the teleprompter without errors? Obama must be sweating.

Hope he has a giant photo of Bin Laden with his eyeball hanging out set up as a backdrop for the speech, just in case the very low-information voters watching at home are slow on the uptake about what they’re supposed to glean from this speech.

I said it earlier today. This is the jug-eared bastard’s “Mission Accomplished” moment. He overplayed his hand with the whole six days “I got Obama” events leading to this moment when he swoops down in Air Force One and visits the troops. It was like Shark Week for policy wonks. And also the most craven self-serving thing ever done as part of a political campaign. GWB was not running for office when he landed on that aircraft carrier.

This is nothing but campaigning which insults the troops, the SEALs who actually got Obama, and the intelligence of the American people. Obama is a filthy bastard who needs to be defeated in November.

Bingo! This will be a new Obama. He will give the military and intelligence community their props. Someone on his staff has to have at least stumbled across the negativity and has made his aware that he better change the program.

Vince on May 1, 2012 at 6:17 PM

And just imagine how much it will gall him to have to share the credit with a bunch of military folks — people he loathes with every ounce of his being. He’ll be choking on those words, all the while telling himself inside his head, “This’ll be good for ME. This’ll be good for ME.”

Bingo! This will be a new Obama. He will give the military and intelligence community their props. Someone on his staff has to have at least stumbled across the negativity and has made his aware that he better change the program.

Vince on May 1, 2012 at 6:17 PM

Watch, it will still be all about the O. I tell you to watch because I simply cannot stand even seeing the filthy bastard anymore. It will be a long summer.

But can they, in their haste, get it onto the teleprompter without errors? Obama must be sweating.

farsighted on May 1, 2012 at 6:20 PM

Will they re-write it or do they believe their own BS so thorouly they plow ahead? Either way I think Rational Thought is correct:

it won’t be enough to save barack. He’s shown too much of his true colors here, and they are ugly, ugly colors. Certainly not presidential colors. And Romney doesn’t have to do a thing. He can just keep his mouth shut and watch barack out there beclowning himself.

BO started speaking at 12:40 AM . . . AM . . . the troops just sat there waiting for something to happen. Finally, they were told. 3K troops were just sitting there in the middle of the night waiting. So you who wondered if they were there volunatarily . . . they weren’t. And they were there when they should be sleeping.

Will they re-write it or do they believe their own BS so thorouly they plow ahead?

dogsoldier on May 1, 2012 at 6:27 PM

Possibly both.

I think they will try to rewrite it, because of the political pressure. But I’m skeptical they can do it, debate it, get agreement on what to say, revise it, get it past Obama, and get it on his teleprompter in time. Obama has probably already read the original speech multiple times, spending a lot of time editing it and revising it himself.

So they may just plow ahead anyway with an only slightly modified speech that removes a few of the many I’s and tosses a few more transparently insincere compliments to the troops.

Most think Obama made a huge political mistake flying some 14,000 miles, wasting more taxpayer money for a photo-op and stunt. He could have even robo-signed the so-called agreement, as he has done it before, saving millions of dollars on his brief appearance. Will come back to bite him.